Unit 2210
Category: layer dug in 1997
Area: North
Interpretive Categories: Room fill
Data Category Information: none
Dimensions: 160cm x 200cm
Description: About 75% of this room is strewn with charcoal, the other 25% is the material that is described in the following section…
Discussion: Area of burning around bucranium exposed by surface scraping and another cattle horn core appearing just to the north. At this point, just cleaning to define this area. Walls fairly well-defined on three sides -- east part of room seems heavily disturbed. More burning on south end. Flotation sample collected from fine troweling all over surface (s.1). Human bone lying on possibly disturbed area in east. Bucranium seems to be upside down -- perhaps a fallen stack of two or more. Two more burnt and fragmented horns (x4 and x5) lie crisscrossed to the north of the bucranium, all in the area of burning. Near the wall to the south of the bucranium is a highly burnt human skull, also fragmented, and appearing to have been burnt in situ. The tips of the bucranium horns are less burnt than the bones and skull, suggesting the flames ran up the wall. Yet another piece of highly calcified(?) horn core is immediately to the north, perhaps slightly under the human skull fragments.
28.8.97 The burned area within unit 2224 was carefully scraped in order to see the extent of the burned, as well as to expose the bucranium so that it can be photographed and documented. In the scraping it surfaced that most of the burned area was black from the charcoal that in many instances had the shape of wood logs or beams.
In this scraping it also showed that a "fire path" could be observed (see plan 97/224). That is, in the SW corner of 2210 the fire was hottest and there was oxygen because the bricks are red burned. Further NW from there, there is a possible opening in the wall, which is marked by 2 lines of red-purple burned clay (they are 40-50 cm apart) and it continues into the next door Space 88. In the middle part of the opening, the burned soil was bright red which may indicate the opening, by the presence of oxygen. The rest of the unit, if not black from charcoal, is yellow. Yellow are the bricks made of very sandy soil as well as a hardened surface which was possibly the result of post-depositional processes, but also floor-like surfaces.
To the South of the bucranion there is a circular concentration of charcoal that might indicate the remains of a post on which the bucranion was fixed.
7/19/98 I (Dusan?) started taking down 2210 (room fill, ie. burnt remains predominantly) for c. 5cm from the top. I am also making a cross-section through it that goes N-S. The aim is to trace the position of the burnt beams. Deposits in one concentrated area in the central south part of 2210 are different from the rest of 2210. They are moist, intensely black, very soft. This is immediately under the bukranion and about 5 cm below the bukranion. In the black burnt wood deposits there is a complete bone awl (x14). Out of the section are protruding two other burnt bone fragments.
29.7.98 Wendy took the micromorphological block (s9) from 2210 cross-section in order to look at the layers of upper portion deposits, which consist of burnt wood and other vegetal materials, and lower deposits which are harder and yellowish deposits of fine layers of ashy clayey material.
Consistency: moderately weak to moderately firm
Colour: 10 YR 5/3- 5/4 brown to yellowish brown
Texture: sandy clay
Bedding: massive
Inclusions: N/A
Post-depositional Features: lots of animal burrows and roots (the sand made it easy)
Basal Boundary: N/A
Dry sieve volume: 190
Total Deposit Volume: 346
Number of Samples recorded by excavator: 10
Number of X-Finds recorded by excavator: 15
Number of Related Diary Entries: 2
Settlement Phase:
Associated Mellaart Levels (from Space): Unassigned at present
Associated Hodder Level (from Space): Unassigned at present
| Related Photos: 10 (Opens as a group in a new window) | |
| Buildings: none | |
Spaces: (Click to view the record)
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| Features:: none |
Finds Room Information:
All material from site passes through the finds room for washing and separating before it is passed onto the various lab teams. The finds room keeps a basic inventory of what is found. A finds material type list is given here. Further analytical detail maybe provided by the Lab Team data below.
X Finds Material: nothing recorded
Finds Material Stored: nothing recorded
Lab Team Data
Please note the list below does not represent everything that might have been found in this Unit, but represents the datasets we have available on-line. Please ArchaeoBots Sample Recorded: No Ceramic Records: No Clay Object Records: No Chipped Stone Records: No Conservation Recorded: No Faunal Records: Yes
Count of records:: 143
Unit description: This is a space 89 fill, where a bucranion and flint dagger were found (in this unit). X2 is a bit of the bucranium skull taken for a DNA sample. X9 is the carved bone handle for a flint dagger (X7+8) found near the burnt bucranium and human skull fragments. X14 is a bone point. X10 is a cattle horn core, beneath the right horn core of the bucranium. This unit not yet done but field observation (lifted 1998): Single horn core appeared beneath bucranium (X10), seems directly beneath right hand horn core. The horn core is dipping down towards tip. Neither tip nor base preserved. Broken at base but estimated minimum diameter in field is 70.3 mm. It is a medium unit and comprises ~equally medium and large size mammals. 30% of bones are evenly black carbonized, both whole bones and those broken before burning. Except two fragments of brown color, and one calcined, they may be burnt in a single event, and most probably in situ. Among large, majority if not all remains are from cattle. There is a first phalanx, most probably wild. Contrary, a carpal is of ?small size. There are also remains of a dog, and birds. There is a fragment of a human vertebra in scraps. Different depositional/postdepositional events seem to be mixed here. There is the portion with in situ burning, directly associated with the horn cores and dagger. Then there is more standard middeny unburnt material. However, the burnt part includes sheep-size as well as cattle, mostly meaty bits. Thus there may have been a general midden or primary deposit of food waste to which the horn cores, etc. were added, and all burnt afterwards. Indeed, save the (unburnt) dog remains, the burnt and unburnt portions look rather similar. Both tend to the meaty parts, ribs excepted, with few feet. Perhaps not separate from the similar deposit below/to the east (2275?). X4 and X5 are fragmentary horn-cores from below the bucranium. Two sample 1s and two samples without numbers, one from 1997 and one from 1998, 100% sorted; only diagnostics recorded, rest as flot frags. Judging from the liters in the flot log and on the unit sheet, the two sample 1s are probably different and one should be another number. Hence they have been kept separate. Sample 1, flot 908, looks like the rest of the unit with a good bit of horn core and about half burnt, mostly at low temperatures; no diagnostics. Sample 1, flot 973, is a little smaller but generally similar. It has a sheep/goat femur caput and a bit of human and microfauna. Sample ?, flot 1021, is also small and has very little horn core and perhaps slightly less burning. There is more sheep-size fauna. Sample ?, flot 1293 from 1998, is smallish and consists almost entirely of the heavily carbonized material from the in situ burning; no diagnostics. NR 2006: A bird bone was returned from microfauna, from the same Sample ? Flot 1021 >4mm.Figurine Records: No GroundStone Records: No Heavy Residue Records: No Microfaunal Records: No
Sorry not all of this data is available online at present, please contact us if you are particularly interested microfauna recordsPhytolith Sample: No
Sorry not all of this data is available online at present, please contact us if you are particularly interested phytolith samplesDownload this Units Data
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